The Black Bag
by writeroneday
Summary: What happened after the elevator closed on Mark.


As always I do not own anything connected to POI, I make no money from this. I have had a long dry spell of writing and have several stories started but they just were not working, this jammed into my head the other night and flowed onto the page...I hope it flows for you. I am not a Mark Snow fan...but it wrote itself...Please read and leave a review...that is my reward...if you like it let me know...if you don't let me know why...thanks and good reading.

"Think about it…" There was just a touch of a smile crossing his lips. It carried into those tired blue green eyes. "All that is waiting for you is a black bag." The smile went to a knowing smile.

Those were John's parting words as the elevator closed and three bullets slammed into the door. He felt the elevator start to go down, and he felt as if it were taking his life with it. Mark Snow took a long look in the shinny metal of the elevator door and the reflection of himself. Glancing down at the floor lowering his gun, he knew Reese was right. In the eyes of the Agency he'd been compromised, and Kara Stanton had done that. She had won.

The elevator chimed for the next floor, he had 19 more floors to go. He looked back at his image in the polished metal of the elevator and realized he'd never make it to the safe house. He was tired.

"_A black bag Mark…that's what is waiting for you."_

He spun around, raising his weapon, searching the back of the elevator. The sound of Reese's soft whisper sounded like he was standing right behind him. The next floor went by…Ding…Drawing a breath he let it out slowly, lowering the gun again. He was in the elevator alone. He became conscious of just how tired he was. Kara had terrorized him all these months. She had been his brightest star, and he had paired her with a new agent all those years ago. Mark Snow had paired one of his best agents with John, knowing that if anyone could turn the highly decorated veteran into an automatic killing machine it would be Kara. Kara never asked questions, always carried out the mission exactly the way she was told. She followed orders and did it with a perfection that was true art. She was cunning, ruthless and deadly. It was more than just her military training; she had a gift for killing. Just like John did. But John had wanted to hang onto that one piece of morality, that one spark of humanity that kept telling him he was still human, still good and he had thought Kara had taken it out of him. _"You have changed John, hope your conscious doesn't get us killed." _ John had played the game well. Another ding…

He felt the weight of the gun in his hand and it suddenly seemed too heavy. Holstering it, he put the ATF jacket back on. Glancing up he saw he had 15 more floors, reaching out he pressed the basement button. He knew this building. Twice, Kara had him do surveillance on it. He knew the fastest exit out of here would be to Basement 1, a right hand turn and then straight out to the street.

His back was aching where John had slammed him into the wall control panel, the pain screamed down his leg. He had known that Kara would end his life, he just didn't want to die right now…there had to be a solution.

A deep sigh escaped his body, things settled in his mind. Past events ran though his mind.

In Ordos if John had followed orders, Kara would be dead and John would have been blown up, dead at the hands of US missiles.

What was it Kara had said to him when John had come out of his drug induced stupor on the bus? _Maybe he'd be good at being dead…_She had given him that half smile; the smile he knew was veiling the anger that smoldered in those dark eyes.

Another ding… One more floor closer to the end, for a moment he had a spiraling sensation. The weight of the bomb vest suddenly seemed to double. Another ding… Mark had spent the last several months trying to get the bomb vest that was wired across his chest off. The first three weeks she had kept him very much aware of the pain. She had dug out the bullet she had put in him, not even giving him an ounce of sympathy, or anything else, just that cold hard look. In the computer room, she had smiled at John; her eyes had softened when he was talking to her. Mark felt a momentary flash of anger as the thought shot through his mind. Another ding…it brought his mind back to how tired he was and that she had kept at him relentlessly. Kara knew how to push someone to the brink and keep them there. She had been an excellent interrogator, he had trained her well. He had not slept more than three hours at a time, and had been kept on a very short leash, a leash that was wrapped around his chest. He had lost thirty pound and a lot of hair. He had tried everything he knew to remove the vest…Ding … the elevator stopped moving, it brought him out of his reverie.

The door slid open, stepping out, turning right he walked the forty feet to the street entrance. Opening the door Mark Snow walked out into the damp, wet night. There were still red and blue lights and the sounds of sirens moving up and down the street, most of the action was centered on the corner to his far right. He walked a few paces and stopped dead. There was Kara's car.

A slow smile spread across his lips. He had beat her to the car…He stood there for a half a minute, fifty thousand things zipped through his mind and he immediately settled on the one that would give meaning to life, to his end.

Walking over to the car, he opened the back door and slid onto the seat. Something came over him; there was some kind of peace that settled right in the middle of his chest. He didn't think about the countdown happening on his chest. He sat back in the shadows of the car to wait. He knew the Gods that he prayed to were going to give him one chance to right a small wrong. Kara had compromised the US Intranets, he didn't know what she had uploaded into the main frames but twice he had heard her talking in Mandarin to someone. He was sorry John would never know that a small piece of his humanity had rubbed off. _' Think about it' _That smug look on John's face as he was laying on the floor, Mark could wipe that smile off his face with what he was about to do. OR maybe John's game face would show. Mark Snow felt as if the weight attached to his chest had been removed. He could breathe and think, for the first time in months he had a clear mind.

A shadow passed the driver's side back door and the front door opened. Kara's slim silhouette slid into the driver's seat, leaning slightly sideways she set what he thought was her cell phone and a notebook down. Her finger was off the send button that numerous times she had promised to splatter his guts all over many various people and objects the last few months. He savored the moment, watching her from behind. He could see her in the rear view mirror, she hadn't looked up yet.

She settled herself in the driver's seat, looking down as she inserted the key in the ignition and started the car.

A sound that was quiet recognizable sounded in the car, she quickly glanced around and then looked in the rearview mirror. It was Mark Snow.

Mark felt a peace flow over him with the look in Kara's eyes. He let a smile touch his lips. "You were right Kara…" He saw the panic in her eyes. "About me being dead." He saw in her eyes, she was going to turn toward him, just what he wanted. "I'm going to be good at it." He reached out and grasped her hand as she tried to come over the front seat to get to the bomb. He knew they had a couple seconds left, how many times had she done that to him, the tone had gone to beeps, she had three beeps to get to the device and put her code in. He knew she didn't have enough time but Mark had enough time to hold her there, see the panic in her eyes and _'think about it.' _Mark Snow had, this was better then a black bag.

-30-


End file.
